hey guys

im just curious to what power cable size i should be using im running a 350 rms alpine mono amp which will power two dual voice coil alpine type s 12 inch subs at 2 ohmd and i kno how to wire it up , gonna wire them in series so it creates a 4 ohm load to suit the 4 ohm amp :)... but will 8 gauge be enough to power it... a mate has a 400 rms amp running of 8 guage for his rockford fosgate and it works perfect. doesnt cut out at all

any advice would be greatly appreciate... or i was considering running a single 4 gauge getting a bigger fuse and then running a splitter to the 4 channel and mono?

thanks for your time

What wattage are those subs each?

300rms each

Hi mate,

Easy thing to do is suss out the size of the fuse which is located on the amp.

If the fuse is under 50A and you plan to keep the power cable under 5m then 8ga will be fine.

So with the way you will wire it, you will giving your woofers about 100WRMS each. Just be careful with the gains. :D

edit - Sorry seen the second bit.

What amp is the 4 channel?

weird, my reply seemed to have vapourised...

1 thing: 4ohm on an M350 will give you about 200W RMS, meaning 100W RMS per sub, meaning pretty damn fail.
Presuming the 4 channel is a 4x50 or something, the 2 amps will run on an 8ga cable comfortably. as already stated, if you want to get overly cautious about it, check the fuse ratings on both amps, add the 2 ratings together, and if they exceed 60A, feel free to bump yourself up to a larger cable, but even if the combined rating is 70A, you wont be utilising that much draw and 60A on 8ga will still be sufficient.

edit: you say the subs are DVC 2ohm, if youve stated it correctly, this would mean that each sub has 2 2ohm coils? if so, with the 2 subs in series/parallel the amp will see a 2ohm load, which is what you want

ok cheers guy.. the 4 channel is only a sony explode which is sufficent for the speakers in the front and rear i am running

Yea i do realise i am under powering the subs but its very strange my mate had the same set up in his Vs commodore 2 type s running of the same amp and it was very bassy? so im not sure whats going on there?

any advice would be great

I guess for one thing he had the right version to maximize the amps output ( the DVC 2ohm version ).

In addition, the only way to get more output without increasing power is to make your enclosure more efficient. Does he have his woofers in a ported cabinet?

umm not sure it was an enclosed cabinet... but i do kno the amp was VERY good back in its time and had a huge amount of tuning options

remember, its better to overpower a sub then underpower it...

yea i understand this... well for the time being im going to connect one of the subs to the amp just see how that goes and then connect the second and see what happens... so im just going to purphase an 8 gauge wiring kit which i rekcon will be fine? thanks for ur time/advice guys still new to this audio busniess

8ga will be fine for 1 or both subs. connecting 1 sub will result in a very negative outcome, as you will be halving the cone area, and also halving the power due to running the amp at 4ohm.

jeez mate u kno alot about car audio.. if only u lived in SA haha :)

If i was you i would personally go for a 4gauge kit they are dirt cheap from any Jaycar or Sprint and they give you some leighway in the future when it comes to upgrading. Yes 8 gauge can handle up to 80amps (although the 80amp AGU fuses often fail due to weak solder joins in the cheaper ones) but i would not want to go above 60amps in 8gauge.

yea i went for the 8 guage in the end... :/ and i have had some issues.. did the install today and its not working at all and i have installed amps before but now this is really giving me the shits, gonna have another look after work tomorrow but yea not sure any suggestion on how to get it working would be great cheers.

theres no power going to the amp not sure how this is possible as it is connected directly to the battery and the fuses are fine... and i kno the amp isnt blown becuase i checked it:S

Check your ground buddy, this can cause the amp to not power up at all. Either that or the Remote wire.

Dont be concerned about getting 8gauge it wont cost much more if you want to upgrade in the future anyway.

Take your time mate, you don't want to break anything.

If you have a cheap 12V test light lying around you can test if the power cable has power ( and the remote for that matter ).

As peeandham said, it will probably be the earth lol.

cheers guys... well i found out today that it is the remote turn on but im still yet to fix it i think the connection behind the deck has come loose or something because when the amp has power or is connected to the ground and power and i fiddle with the remote the amp powers up for a second but then it goes off :/ when i have connected the remote and turn the system/car on acc.... get nothing... now im guess that there is a loose conection behind the deck somewhere which sucks.. and btw when having two amps can u bridge the remote turn on right from one amp to another?

cheers...anyone in SA thats good with sound systems and wants to give me a hand :)

and btw when having two amps can u bridge the remote turn on right from one amp to another?


Yes.

If you solder and heatshrink your connections you shouldnt have any coming loose.

yea cheers for ur imput mate.. do u go to the fornightly meets?

Nah im far to busy.

Nah im far to busy.

yea no joke